Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Do you think monthly income of RM3,000 nowadays sufficient to survive for a family of 4 members?

Before you think about it further, I got a forwarding email from a friend some time ago, with the theme "Can a family man with salary RM3,000 can survive in Malaysia?". It sounds interested and the content of the Email is shown as below:

In Malaysia, the average family income is RM3,000/month(where father works,mother doesn't) I understand there are many families whose monthly income does not reach RM3,000 but to make things simple, let's take RM3,000 as the figure.

Okay, let ' s start rolling with a family which has Papa, Mama, 1 daughter and 1 son.

Calculation starts...

1)Electricity and water bills (RM100)-no air-cond,no home theater,no water heater

In summary, the content described a family man unable to survive with RM3,000, or even facing difficulty if he is earning RM3,600. It might be true according to the calculation above.

Sometimes limited income drives us crazy, as we have too many dreams to achieve.

In my opinion, the cost living in Malaysia is indeed quite high, and the inflation and stuffs price are overshoot. If we continue to spend in that way, getting RM5,000 income a month also insufficient for that family. It also depends on how the family spend and where they living, as well as their existing financial background and investment. In short, if you only have such a mere income, it's very difficult to spend the items listed above, such as paying a house and car at the same time, unless both parents are working.

So it seems useless if we keep complaint especially to the government. Perhaps we really have to think harder, strive harder and find our way out. Perhaps there is a baseline that we should have a hard saving plan and monthly budget workout. I'm sure our neighbor countries citizens are facing more difficulties than us, as they are getting much more lower income than us, while facing serious inflation. How they survive then? Perhaps you can ask them.

We suffer and complain, where they suffer and died.

In conclusion, I guess we are a lot luckier and better to Africa countries and Iraq residents.Cheers.